A refrigerator is a device for storing food in a low temperature state and may be configured to preserve food in a frozen state or in a cool state according to the type of the food which a user wants to store.
An inside of the refrigerator is continuously supplied with cold air. The cold air is continuously generated by a heat exchange process with refrigerant, based on a cooling cycle, which goes through a process of compression-condensation-expansion-evaporation.The cold air is supplied to the inside of the refrigerator by convection to maintain the food in the refrigerator at a desired temperature.
Generally, a main body of the refrigerator has a rectangular parallelepiped shape of which the front surface is open and the inside of the main body may be provided with a refrigerating compartment and a freezing compartment. Further, the front surface of the main body may be provided with a refrigerating compartment door and a freezing compartment door for selective access of a portion of the refrigerator. A storage compartment in the refrigerator may be provided with multiple drawers, shelves, receiving boxes, etc., in which various food may be stored in an optimal condition.
Traditionally, a top mount type refrigerator has a freezing compartment positioned at an upper portion and has a refrigerating compartment positioned at a lower portion. Recently, however, for user convenience, a bottom freezer type refrigerator in which the freezing compartment is positioned at a lower portion has been released. In the case of the bottom freezer type refrigerator, a frequently used refrigerating compartment is positioned at an upper portion and a relatively less used freezing compartment is positioned at a lower position. Thus a user may conveniently use the refrigerating compartment. However, since the freezing compartment is positioned at the lower portion, the bottom freezer type refrigerator has a problem in that a user needs to bend over to open the freezing compartment door to remove ice.
To solve the above problem, recently, a refrigerator has been released in which a dispenser for removing ice is installed in the refrigerating compartment door positioned at the upper portion of the bottom freeze type refrigerator. In this case, the refrigerating compartment door or the inside of the refrigerating compartment may be provided with an ice machine.
The ice machine may include an ice-making assembly which includes an ice tray for generating ice, an ice bucket for storing the generated ice, and a transfer assembly for transferring the ice stored in the ice bucket to a dispenser.
In addition, a duct for ice making is provided so that the freezing compartment and the ice machine are coupled together, wherein the duct for ice making is disposed on a left-side or right-side wall surface portion of the refrigerating compartment to couple with a freezing compartment of the ice-making compartment when a door is closed.
Accordingly, the duct for ice making and the ice-making compartment are separated from each other when the door is open, and the duct for ice making and the ice-making compartment are configured to couple with each other when the door is closed. Thus, when the door is closed, cold air in the freezing compartment is supplied through the duct for ice making to the ice-making compartment as cold air for generating ice.
However, the conventional refrigerator design has the following problems.
First, since the duct for ice making must be disposed on a left-side or right-side wall surface portion of the refrigerating compartment, a structure for insulating the duct must be added thereto. Further, the internal capacity of the refrigerator is reduced, and the pipe structure in the refrigerator is complex.
Second, cold air can be transferred from the freezing compartment to an ice-making compartment only when the door is closed, and the cold air passing through the ice making duct is discharged to the outside when the door is open, and thereby reducing the energy efficiency is.
Third, since ice making is achieved with an indirect cooling scheme in which ice is generated by cold air supplied through the duct, direct cooling is not achieved, thereby increasing the time required for ice-making.
Fourth, since the ice machine is maintained at a low temperature state, the ice machine is typically covered with frost. If such frost is not effectively removed, the ice machine frequently malfunctions or fails.